Horizon Journey 6M Chips Roll Into Mass Production for City NOA Across Mainstream Markets

Horizon Robotics announced on Sept. 1 that its Journey 6M intelligent-driving chip has reached a major mass-production milestone. By the end of August 2026, the chip had been deployed in more than 70 production models across 20 automakers, with seven brands already delivering platform-level city navigation-on-autopilot (City NOA) capabilities built on the silicon.

The rollout signals a significant shift: City NOA is moving out of exclusive high-end territory and into the mainstream market segment, roughly covering vehicles priced around 100,000 RMB and above. The technology is no longer limited to electric vehicles — single-chip configurations based on the Journey 6M support air-cooled thermal solutions, meeting the heat-dissipation and production requirements of internal-combustion-engine vehicles as well.

The Journey 6M delivers 128 TOPS of compute performance with industry-leading efficiency for Transformer-based large models, enabling a one-shot end-to-end City NOA architecture. This full-scenario intelligent-driving capability covers highways, urban roads and automated parking within a single chip at a mainstream cost tier.

Compared with the Journey 6E — which offers approximately 80 TOPS and passive cooling for broad powertrain compatibility — the 6M provides stronger performance, targeting lightweight City NOA and advanced applications such as memory driving.

Horizon first introduced the Journey 6 series in April 2024, spanning the 6B, 6L, 6E, 6M, 6H and 6P variants. Early last year, Li Auto became the first automaker to ship a production vehicle equipped with the chip: its AD Pro 4.0 system, developed jointly with Qingshou Zhihang (Qingbo), delivered what Horizon described as the industry's first end-to-end City NOA solution based on a single Journey 6M chip, available on the L-series facelift models.

The expansion of City NOA into affordable segments is expected to intensify competition among Chinese automakers and smart-driving chip suppliers as features once reserved for premium models become standard across broader price ranges.